End-time epic and summer lethargy

Directors Sophia Bösch sets out with her dramaMilk teeth (200,000 euros, Weydemann Bros, Hamburg) is set in a dystopian world in the not-too-distant future. Mistrust and superstition dominate an isolated community of remnants. When the young Skalde takes in a child from the forest, she breaks the law of the community. The film will have six days of shooting in Schleswig-Holstein. Mathilde Bundschuh, Susanne Wolff and Ulrich Matthes play the leading roles in the German-Swiss-Swedish co-production. Bösch co-wrote the script, which is based on the novel of the same name by Helene Bukowski, with Roman Gielke.

Further production funding goes to the coming of age storyThe stain (160,000 euros, Fünferfilm, Hamburg) by Hamburg-based Director and Script Writer Willy Hans. The drama is set on a hot summer's day, which a group of young people spend lazily by a river. In associative images and mystical shots of nature, the film explores the boundaries between individuality and community.

Production funding of 150,000 euros goes to the animated filmChristmas of the animals (Luftkind Filmverleih, Berlin), in which young and old can look forward to six animated short stories. A total of six international Directors and Script Writers will be involved in the project - Hamburg-based Director and Script Writer Ceylan Beyoglu and Hamburg-based animation studio Fabian&Fred are on board for Germany. The documentary thrillerThe cure (65,000 euros, FAVO Filmproduktion, Hamburg) by filmmaker Lillian Rosa and HFBK Hamburg graduate Marcus Richardt, which is about the global coronavirus pandemic and the discoverer of mRNA vaccination technology.

There was project development for three films in the current Director's Cut session: Hamburg-based Directors and Script Writer Rosanne Pel narrates inAnna is (40,000 euros, Junafilm, Hamburg) tells the story of a woman who is forced to go on a diet by her mother and sister during a holiday. The drama is about the burglary of a villa and an accidentally stolen sex tapeDiamonds (35,000 euros, Riva Filmproduktion, Hamburg) by Director and Script Writer Dima Hamdan. The road movieDear Friend (15,000 euros, Fünferfilm, Hamburg) by Matilda Rogers follows a group of people fighting for justice.

Six projects have received screenplay funding: In the horror filmImperial Palace (30,000 euros, Jünglinge Film, Hildesheim) by the "Futur Drei" Script Writer team Faraz Shariat and Paulina Lorenz, all the children suddenly disappear during a safari trip in Namibia. The two Script Writers Anne Döring and Nicolaas Schmidt write withSomething New Has Begun (25,000 euros, Amerikafilm, Berlin) on a sad-comic-romantic love film about an unhappy couple in Hamburg Eimsbüttel. A colonised village in Schleswig-Holstein is the subject of the tragicomedyWelcome to Klein Mohrdorf (22,000 euros) by Martin Rehbock from Lübeck. In the tragicomedyNaduduke (21,000 euros, PakFilm, Hamburg), a Hamburg architect returns to his home country of Iran. For the coming of age storyBut nobody sees us (Intuition Club, Schönkirchen) by Dennis Stormer from Schleswig-Holstein will receive 20,000 euros in screenplay funding. Further screenplay funding totalling 18,000 euros goes to the dramaBecause in the beginning there was bread! of the Hamburg-based Reza-Sam Mosadegh.

In the Completion section, the DocumentaryAbo Zabaal Prison 1989 (20,000 euros, Jyoti Film, Hamburg) by Egyptian filmmaker Bassam Mortada.

Distribution funding goes to two projects shortly before the end of the year:Everything you need (15,000 euros, thede e.V., Hamburg) by Hamburg filmmaker Antje Hubert, andKabul children's home (2,855 euros, Wolf Kino, Berlin) by new Hamburg resident Shahrbanoo Sadat.

Playback funding goes to theAccompanying catalogue "Retrospective Basil Dearden" (5,000 euros, Kinemathek Hamburg e.V.) andUlrike Ottinger - The great film and world theatre - a retrospective (5,000 euros B-Movie Kino Kulturinititaive auf St.Pauli e.V.).

An overview of all funded projects can be found here.

The Director's Cut Committee is responsible for films and series with production costs of less than 3.5 million euros and cinema documentaries with production costs of less than 1.5 million euros.

The funding decisions were made on 3 December 2021: Gabor Greiner, Timo Großpietsch, Sarah Blaßkiewitz and Helge Albers.